Dear Heroes, I really am a Villain-Chapter 39: The Clowns

At first, he and his gang planned to just take the money and disappear. In the Fringe, where people from all sorts of places and shady characters from both inside and outside the city mingle, it’s hard to track anyone down.

Especially if that person is visiting the Fringe for the first time.

But this? This idiot is different! Easy money like 600,000 doesn’t come every day. The fool offered so much that not trying to fleece him for everything he had would almost be considered impolite!

"Hey guys! We’ve got a big client today," Red Vulture said excitedly to his comrades inside their hideout.

"A big client or a big sheep!?" one of his comrades joked, drawing laughter from everyone in the room.

The hideout wasn’t large, just a simple 11 square meter (120 square foot) room. Inside were three workstations, each with three to five mismatched monitors and various pieces of monitoring equipment. A stack of jury-rigged servers was held together by duct tape and an improvised rack.

The room was full of exposed wires glowing with blue and red neon signals to show they were still functional. The ceiling bore multiple smoke stains from past accidents, and stained mattresses were thrown in a corner for shift sleeping. Garbage bags... mostly filled with empty instant noodle cups, lay around the room.

"Listen, this time it’s a million—a million bucks if we get the information! That sheep already paid me 200 grand in advance. We only need to find what he wants!" said Red Vulture.

"What kind of information are we talking about?" one of the comrades asked, interested.

"It’s like this," Red Vulture began, sharing the details of Maximilian’s request and what little he knew about it. Thanks to Maximilian uncovering much of the lead himself, they had a good idea of what they were getting into.

At that moment, one of his comrades frowned and said, "Where are we going to find that kind of information? We’re not some big-shot broker with a team of mercs ready to be hired, and we definitely don’t have the firepower or connections to dig that deep. Listen to me, Vulture—you better contact that client of yours and give his money back!"

"Why? Frank... isn’t that a little stupid? He already paid, and last I checked, we don’t offer refunds," Red Vulture shrugged, joking, which drew another round of laughter from the crew.

But Frank wasn’t laughing.

"Listen to me. You said he already knew something about this... Rebecca Lane, the daughter of Blood Mongoose, right? Do you know who Blood Mongoose was?" Frank paused, letting his words sink in.

"Who else? A third-rate villain who died at the hands of the UEC Special Forces," Red Vulture replied mockingly.

But Frank didn’t humor Vulture. He stayed silent for a moment, then slowly replied,

"No... He was UEC Special Forces. One of the best. ’Villain’ was just his public identity. He had a very high mission success rate. I won’t claim to know everything about him because most of his missions were highly classified. But... I can tell you one thing... He was good enough to kill a hero in the top twenty rankings." He paused.

"Vulture... this matter, and your so-called client, stinks to high heaven. If I were you, I’d return his money immediately and either ask him to forget this matter or introduce him to someone who can actually help. Seriously... do you really think someone who can dig up this much information about Blood Mongoose’s daughter can be easily duped by us!?" Frank warned sternly.

"No, Frank! You listen to me! I’ve already done a background check on him. He’s just an immigrant! No history! Just moved in! Nothing to worry about! Trust me. All we need to do is find a few clues, some scraps of information, anything! Or we could just fabricate something, send that sheep into the Wildlands, and I guarantee he’ll die there. He won’t be coming back for revenge!" Red Vulture snapped.

"You said you’ve done a background check on him, right? And found nothing?" Frank let out a sarcastic smirk as he stood up.

"No, Vulture... what you said is actually the guarantee that something’s definitely off about him. There’s no way someone who can uncover this much about Blood Mongoose’s daughter is just an ordinary guy. I’m sorry, but I call bullshit," Frank said flatly.

"Bullshit!? You’re the one spouting bullshit, Frank! Listen to me! this guy... this idiot!" Vulture corrected himself mid-rant. "This idiot contacted me through Ricardo! And you know who Ricardo is! He’s just a street thug! A rat! Like us! Rats that can only survive in the backstreets!" Vulture reasoned.

"That’s right!"

"You’re too paranoid, Frank!"

The other two comrades chimed in, backing Vulture, not because they thought he was right but because the prospect of a million bucks was too tempting to ignore.

Even though Frank was the most skilled among them, he was also the newest. Most of the time, Frank treated them like amateurs, constantly correcting and trying to teach them.

That was one of the reasons they had started to isolate him. And now, with money on the line, they were siding with Vulture.

"What?" Frank looked at his comrades in disbelief.

"You think I’m too paranoid!? If I said you’re all idiots, would you still think the world is full of stupid people waiting for us to fleece them!? Do you think you’ll just walk away with a slap on the wrist if you get caught?" Frank exploded, having already had enough of their ignorance.

"I’ll tell you what really happens if we get caught," Frank continued. "Best case... we die. Worst case? If the corpos catch us, our brains get put in a jar, kept alive in a permanent coma, and used in their twisted experiments!"

"You think hacking gets you a few months in jail at most? Think again. And if it weren’t for me, all of you would’ve been caught hundreds of times already!"

Frank roared at them, his face twisted with frustration. These thoughts had been boiling inside him ever since he started working with them.

Hearing this, Vulture and all of his comrades’ faces grew solemn.

"Get the f*ck out of here, Frank. I don’t think we can continue working together anymore," Vulture said, pointing at the door.

Frank gritted his teeth. "Fine!" He stood up and walked out without turning back.

"Hey!" Vulture followed him and shouted, "To me, you’re just chickening out! No risk, no reward, remember!?" he yelled after Frank, who was slowly vanishing into the darkness.

Hearing Vulture’s words, Frank muttered under his breath,

"What you’re doing isn’t risk, Vulture... it’s suicide," before disappearing into the back alley beneath the night sky of the Fringe.

Unknown to both Frank and Vulture, another pair of eyes had been watching their interaction. The observer was Daniel, clad in a black powered suit, crouched on a nearby rooftop connected to the junction of adjacent buildings. He had hacked into the CCTV system of the hideout and knew everything.

At that moment, he was leaking the job details online—along with the group’s current address.

[What are you doing, Max?] Atherna asked, curious.

{I’m leaking the contract contents using their address,} Maximilian replied.

[Huh? What for? (´-ω-`)]

{I need these people to keep jumping like clowns. But I don’t have the time to wait for their bumbling to draw attention. Besides, I doubt they’ll make much of a wave with their current abilities, especially after they just kicked out the brains of the group.

So... I’m going to help them make some waves—the kind that’ll benefit me the most.}

[You still didn’t answer my question, Edgy-man. (´-ω-`)]

Maximilian: .....

{The answer is: these people will be the bait.

And the ones who truly know about Rebecca—or the ones who kidnapped her—will most likely come looking for them.

Best-case scenario? The people who abducted Rebecca show up because they can’t risk someone else finding out where she is.

All I need to do is keep my eyes on this group... and question whoever comes for them.}

[Umm... Max... you’re becoming more and more scheming. Are you sure you’re alright? I don’t remember you being this... ’Schemy’ before,] Atherna asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

{Yeah... I wasn’t. But now, I need to be.}

{Besides, it seems that Blood Mongoose’s ability affects my thought process during operations.

This is exactly how he would handle the situation if he were limited to my knowledge of this world.

It would be better if I had access to some of his useful memories... and knew who to contact.} said Maximilian.

[But I think it’s best that you don’t get his memories,] said Atherna.

{Huh?}

[Memories define who we are... If you gain Blood Mongoose’s memories too, I don’t know who you’ll become.

It’s a good thing you’re still an edgelord lover deep down,] she added with a sigh of relief.

{Are you praising me or roasting me?} Maximilian retorted.